Is there a way to charge 240watts??

I am not familiar with the term 'battery generator', so I am making this up. (Feel free to link to a battery generator website)

The DC to DC converter in the Inverter is fused to produce up to 125 amps (some is needed to run the car) so if you draw more it will drain the 12 v battery or blow a fuse. That should give you about 1000 watts in Ready. Do not run the 'battery generator' when not in Ready.

This YouTube video is about Gen 2, but your Gen 3 is similar, he discusses the DC to DC converter from about 15:10 to about 18:00.

 

Something like this

 

120 watts is just what standard 'cigarette lighter' sockets are supposed to allow. Anything more requires some form of heavy duty socket, wiring, and fusing. Some vehicles do come with such heavier duty ports, but never assume it without looking.

Skip the former, do the later. Absent more info on your device, we don't know that the former is even possible.

And as Jimbo pointed out, do it only while the car is in 'Ready', or you'll end up with a dead 12V battery.

 

I followed the link. You have a battery based inverter. A 1500W true sine inverter. Pretty nice. Looking at the datasheet it appears that you can charge it from 12v DC at a fixed 240W or from 110VAC at 60W or the 2 solar inputs.

The Prius in READY mode will happily supply you 240W from the 12v (14.4v) inverter rail while consuming about an equal amount keeping the car alive. If you will be driving around for 5 hours per full discharge day then it is not a problem. The extra overhead is there anyways because you are using the car as a car. If you are parking it for 4.5 hours to charge this for 5 hours after driving a half hour, bit a of waste there, but also possible if that floats your boat.

For 240W, the easiest solution is just install a cig lighter outlet in the back directly connected to the 12v battery. Personally I would one up that, I'd power that "power outlet" only when the car is on, so power that outlet via a relay that is coil triggered by the ignition.

Or if you don't want to do any DIY, then buy a 100W inverter for peanuts at any gas station, walmart, amazon, whatever, and lose a bit of efficiency but it will "just work". That port by the passenger footwell is already only live with READY mode so no worry about draining the battery. That port can supply 60W, say 80W with terrible conversion efficiency, all day long without breaking a sweat.

 

^ Awesome post.

Just to add- I have a similar device from an earlier generation, and once I thought to bring some solar panels to charge it.

Once.

It's just too many panels (or too large of a single unit) to haul for a "fun" camping trip. Sure, you can charge a little with a small panel, but it's really not worth it. Especially when you consider the value of a nice shady cool private campsite.

kikik: I would wire up a 12v connector in your situation. It's how I've used mine for most of the ~10 years I've owned it.

 

The second that READY icon displays on the dash, that port will be live. You can leave it plugged into the retrofitted cig lighter port in the back and it will charge anytime it is READY. That simple. Driving versus parked makes zero difference, yay big hybrid inverter. READY versus not READY makes the difference. If you don't heed the advice of wiring in a relay so the cig lighter is only on when the car is READY, and forgot to disconnect it or leave it to charge with the car off, your battery will be dead in 1-2 hours and you'll be completely stranded in the woods.

At high elevation on a cold day in direct sunlight at the perfect attack angle you may see 120W out of that. Lets say this perfect day happens, and you have nothing better to do while camping then hold the panel exactly facing the sun for 8 hours. No clouds in the sky either and everything is working at an impossible 100% efficiency. You'd get 120W * 8 hours = 960Wh of power. YAY! That's basically nothing for a lot of work. In normal situation, especially camping where you are generally surrounded by trees or shading devices, you may get 200Wh to 400Wh a day out of the panel. That would be equivalent to an hour charging from the Prius.

I keep a foldable 30W solar panel with me that has 2 USB ports. I take it to the beach, spread it on the sand and charge up the phones, works great. I also use it on planes sometimes where there aren't power ports and my battery bank(s) are dead it slides into the window and can keep a charge high above the clouds. I also have 11KW of solar on one of my houses. So I am not against solar at all. But bringing a panel just to charge this big battery bank when you also have a car right there, seems silly to me. Bring it if you want, but you probably won't ever hook it up more than once.

If you go serious camping where it is just you and bears for 2 weeks, no civilization in sight, then bring the panel! When we are up in the Yukon Territory you bet my backpack has backup power banks and cables and a solar charger for the phone. They are still finding people from the late 1800's that didn't bring their solar chargers... Your rescue part may be a couple centuries away. But if you are within screaming distance of civilization and space is limited, pack for convenience.

 

If you wire up wrong, even for a second, you will do about $4000 of damage to the Prius. I would use a fused cigarette lighter interface rather than jumper cables, hard to do wrong once installed.
www.amazon.com/dp/B01CUDHE5I

As I read the manual, charging via the car's 12 volts: "Using a car’s DC charge port at 240W will fully recharge the Kodiak in approximately five (5) hours. Connect Car Charger to either 12V DC Universal Car Socket." will not draw over 20 Amps. The cable I found is rated at 20 Amps.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1654/8245/files/Kodiak-User-Guide.pdf?12861600666068567460

I tried to find a cover for the male cigarette lighter end, but my best search only found female sockets, you could just snip off the leads or used the connectors as covers: www.amazon.com/Cigarette-Lighter-TEQStone-Waterproof-Motorbike/dp/B018WZI0P6

 

Don't let us discourage you from trying the solar set-up. Even if it doesn't make you much electricity, it helps as a conversation piece and it's wonderful as an educational tool.

When I was young, my father gave me a single solar cell packaged as a science toy. I got rather a lot of benefit from it even if almost none of it was in the form of energy.

You're going to want to find a hybrid specialist shop or automotive electrician. A regular electrician isn't going to know what to do. A traditional mechanic ought to do ok given that this is all within the 12v system.

Toyota likely won't want any part of this because they only sell and support their own parts and they don't sell this as an accessory.

 

One advantage of the tiny wires in the cord I showed, is that it can't carry much electricity, so it's ability to damage anything is limited. Jumper cables are huge. The advantage of an expert is that they can find a source that is only live when Ready.
Automotive Electrical Maine - Google Search

Yes in the manual I linked, they suggested using the (female) "12V DC Universal Car Socket" to charge from a car, so I show a male ended cord. The Kodiak supplied cord is for 110v A/C

The male ended cord I suggested could come in contact with metal and drain the battery, so I tried to find a cover for it. I failed, but found a socket which would protect it if the leads on the socket were snipped off or covered.

Searching their site, I find an available car charger cord, in the Prius you need to be sure it does not draw more than 10 amps. Inergy Kodiak Generator 12V Car Charger - Inergy Solar

 

Note that 240 watts at 12V is 20 amps.

But the too-brief descriptions there didn't give me enough information to answer my questions.

 

It means you can't charge it from the stock cigarette lighters in the car. (No scenario has you using the back battery without the car being Ready)

You could have an automotive electrician install one that can handle 20 Amps

www.amazon.com/dp/B075KF1K84