Power gererator/inverter garage

I am note sure if this is the right place or not but here it goes. I want to make my garage self contained electrically. I was going to try wind generation or solar power, then invert a battery bank to supply the volts and maximum current I would need to run lights, my garage heater, and a power tool or two. I then acquired a 12 volt DC permanent magnet motor. I thought why couldn't I run the motor off 1 car battery and have that motor drive an alternator that would charge the battery bank and the motor battery. At that point inverting the output of the bank to supply the electrical needs in my garage. Am I missing something here? Because it makes sense to me on paper. I haven't calculated any requirements yet. I am not out in the garage all the time which would give ample time for the batteries to fully charge until a regulator would turn the motor off. Would the alternator regulator be the right thing to use in this circuit?

Ed,

This sounds a bit like a perpetual motion machine - where you're using a battery to drive a 12VDC motor, which in turn drives an alternator to charge the battery driving the 12VDC motor?

While this sounds like a neat idea, the reality is you can't get a net energy gain. You lose efficiency at each step of the system (heat loss, friction, etc).

So bottom line, this will not work.

Your best bet is to use wind or solar power to get your garage off the grid.