Ryland,
The approach you have settled on is very close to what I do in my home. I have a 12000 btu window a/c in the second story that I set to run at about 5 degF above the central air thermostat on the ground level of my home. When it's hot outside, the small unit runs much longer than the central unit, but every once in a while the central 3 ton unit unit kicks on for a short time.
From first glance, this approach seems like it is ineffective, since the larger unit is certainly more energy efficient than the smaller one. In practice, it works very well and saves me energy and money. The window unit does an excellent job of dehumidifying the air, and the central unit basically just mixes and cools the already dried air quickly when it runs.
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