"Hey Scotty, I’ve been following your show for years! I’ve been experimenting with using a car alternator and a motor as a potential alternative power source. I'm running into some issues converting DC to AC voltage efficiently. Could you do a segment breaking down if this is a viable alternative energy setup? As a robotics engineer, I'd love to refine this concept and maybe even develop a product in the future. Appreciate your expertise!" Thanks you rock.
using a car alternator and a motor as a potential alternative power source.
You mean getting something from nothing? Sorry the universe doesn't work that way.
If not, then you'll need to elaborate on exactly what you're trying to do please. Alternators produce Alternating Current (AC), hence the name. It is rectified to DC with diodes so the vehicles systems can use it.
You can't produce power from nothing.
In order for the alternator to produce electricity, you need to spin the crankshaft. It takes fuel to spin the crankshaft. Some of the chemical energy in the gas turns into mechanical energy when the spark plug ignites the gas and is used to push the piston back down. Most of the gas' chemical energy is converted to thermal energy. The alternator uses the rotation of the crankshaft to drive a magnet. The magnet spins within copper wires, which generates the electricity. Every time you convert chemical to mechanical to electrical energy, there are losses. That doesn't include losses due to entropy, either.
If you're looking for a way to make a home-built generator using an alternator and small gas engine there's plenty of information that can be found with a simple internet search.
On the other hand if you're interested in a "free energy" perpetual motion machine you need to revisit your grade-school science lessons.
Whoa folks, @apallos said he was going to use " a car alternator and a motor".
In any case, getting the electronics right are a major challenge. The alternator output is AC, which the car's system converts to DC to charge the car systems. Alternators often incorporate key parts of the this system IN the alternator. So then, I guess what the poster wants to do is change the AC converted to DC back to AC again?
Read here for a more detailed discussion of alternators: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/alternator3.htm
Perhaps an easier path would be to find a used stand-alone portable generator system with a damaged or worn engine, and then adapt the generator part (which also has the correct electronics bits to provide stable AC) to run off the gas motor the poster already has. There are some of these out there, as the motors are subject to more wear and/or misuse than the generators and electronics.
@glen_stet motors can run on gas or electricity, so the post is a bit ambiguous. But car engines are optimized for propulsion, so using it to produce electricity is far, far less efficient than just buying generator.