I am not an aircon guy nor want to play one on TV. Points well taken on your suggestions.
They make load shed modules for prioritizing 4 loads (thermostat dry contacts) but they allow more than one unit to come on based on the watt load on the generator. They also make Power Management module that does similar thing.
I caught that.
I wasn't trying to play thermostat either, but I did have the training to size AC's
If you had two AC's. One for up and one for downstairs, load sheding based on time might give you odd results, comfort wise.
Your idea is better than nothing. I think, in some cases, AC is turned off when the generator kicks in.