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Originally Posted by cnctony
I understand your question. Power is power in one form or another you can't take away from one (ALT and DC supply) to feed the other (combustion engine). but have you not heard of gear ratios and PWM controllers? You can lift a lot more weight if you have a bigger lever with the same horsepower.
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And I understand that every time you convert from one form of energy to another, you suffer a loss based on the efficiency of the conversion. Chemical energy (gasoline or diesel fuel) converts to mechanical energy (pistons turning a crankshaft) and heat energy (dissipated through the exhaust and cooling system) converted to electrical energy (alternator) and back into mechanical energy and heat (DC motor). Even with 100% efficiency, there is no gain. To reach 100% efficiency, you would have to somehow capture all the heat energy currently being thrown out into the air, and overcome the friction losses in the engine, the DC motor, and each device being powered. That's just to break even.
Find a way to make an energy profit, and you'll be rich, famous, and win a Nobel Prize.
All IMHO, by the way. I would dearly like for you to prove me wrong, but I'll not be betting that way.