I got quite an education on this about 4 years ago. Most of the articles you find online the people have no idea what they are talking about or doing! Hint, as soon as they bring out a Kill a Watt meter, they don't have a clue. Takes a quality clamp on meter to measure inrush current.
My Honda 2000 would not start my Duo Therm 11k unit. Get a Suppco they said, will work 100%, easy to install. Put one in and wow! The AC fired right up, in 70 degree weather. Some place between 70 and upper 90's it failed to start the AC. Temperature, humidity and elevation affect AC and generator operation.
So on the net, at what point with a hard start running an AC that is oversized for the genset are brownout conditions experienced, at what temperature, at what elevation? How long will it take to burn out the AC or genny? The electronics in the Honda are in the $500 area, not something I want to make the wrong guess on.
If you try to run an air conditioner during a brown-out you risk damaging it permanently by burning the motor out. The reason is the air conditioners and many other motor driven appliances require a great deal more power to start than to continue running. If the power isn’t available the motor continues to draw excess power none-the-less but fails to start and eventually overheats and burns out.
It is possible that modern appliances have protections to prevent this from happening but it has been a traditional problem so it’s worth consulting the manufacturer to ask their advice.
So for me the options are bigger genny, smaller AC or a Micro Air soft start.
I was able to use an 8k window unit, which the Honda 2000 runs under all conditions. I did add a hard start to it, so I can run in ECO mode.
Only my opinion and worth what you are paying for it.
