[ruquick]

A soft starter makes a big difference on the inrush amps on a central ac unit. I installed one on my ac years ago and have been using a 11,500/9,200 generator to run the whole house when needed.

EasyStart Soft Starter

 

[ruquick]

I run my whole house off a 11,500/9,200 generator. Went over 2 weeks after one of the storms running off the generator. Have a gas furnace and went about a week after the hard freeze. My generator rating number is for gas but I run it on natural gas with a conversion kit. I guess it just depends on how much money you want to spend. If money isn't an object I would get something that's not air cooled and has a real oil pump and filter. Get the largest you can afford for some piece of mind. I'm sure you don't need as much as you think unless you have more than one central AC unit and pulling 90+ amps each when they start.