Battery Drain / Re-start 79

Been having a battery drain restart problem for years now. I noticed yesterday when I did not use the a/c the car seem to be fine. Voltage gauge was high. Put on the a/c when I got home and it zapped the battery. Long ago my a/c control smoked and had some burned / hot spots on the rotary contact of which I cleaned up with contact cleaner and the a/c worked fine. I am wondering if this could be one of my issues? What do you think?