What’s the simplest way to hook up a small generator to a home’s power grid?

I've search the internet extensively and haven't found an answer to this question.

I just wanted to play with solar panels and human powered generators and couldn't figure out the simplest and cheapest way to hook it into my house to get some benefit out of it.

I.E. can i just have my panel hooked into a charge controller and a single battery to act as a float and then an inverter and hook the output from the inverter into a standard power plug in the house? can i push power into a power outlet or is there some system so that power can only come out of the plug?

anyone have any ideas on the easiest simplest way to hook up a panel or a car alternator? I was going to turn my indoor bicycle into a generator by hooking up a car alternator to it... how could i most simply hook this into the house?