Trickyrick:
I'm using the display in a rental home to display the outside temp and pool temp. There are times when no one is in the home so yes I'm trying to extend the life of the LCD. I thought by using a motion sensor cutting pwr would work I didn't realize that the LCD would have to initialized every time it was powered up
With that goal, then just turn off the display and backlight.
Depending on which library you are using, some come with functions to do that.
display(), noDisplay() - turns on/off lcd pixels
backlight(), noBacklight() - turns on/off backlight
on(), off() - turn on/off the both display and the backlight.
These do not require the LCD to be re-initaized and when the LCD and backlight are turned back on, the previous contents will show back up on the display.
what type of interface are you using to control the LCD?
What library are you using?
--- bill