One important thing that has not been mentioned is that you do not want to cycle power to the A/C compressor off and on without giving it a chance to settle. Basically, the "high pressure" side of the A/C needs time to equalize with the "low pressure" side before the unit is restarted. If you do not allow this time the compressor has to start under load and can burn up. Just to throw a time out there, you need to wait about a minute or two between turning the unit off and then restarting it.
Industrial A/C units have protection from quick restarts but, home units usually do not.
Mark