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Your eye is made of "rods" and "cones". Rods are receptors in your eyes that are more sensitive to light and are how we see things with low light. There are much more rods than cones in your eye with about 4.5 million cones and about 90 million rods in a person’s retina. The rods are able to perceive more light when the light is at a higher Kelvin or a more blue color. The cones in your retina are basically responsible for color and are not sensitive to low light. What people mean when they refer to Scotopic lighting, are lighting that has a higher ratio towards the higher Kelvin blue color spectrum lighting often 4000 to 7500 Kelvin. Since your eye will perceive more light in that color spectrum you can effectively light an area with much less lamps if they are more Scotopic.
I have seen in commercial applications where people were used to 3-4 lamp 2'x4' lighting fixtures perceive the same lighting levels and sometimes even higher with a single lamp in a 2'x4' fixture. Sometimes user adjustable dimmers were provided and the occupants lowered the levels another 20-30%.
The concept can work in any application commercial or residential. The light is more like natural daylight. That type of lighting often creates less fatigue on your eyes and less glare. For residential use a dimmer would be beneficial to tune it down. It can be implemented in existing buildings but it does often depend on the type of fixture to maximize the effects. As an example going to one fixture often requires a deep enough fixtures to retrofit it cost effectively without replacing the entire fixture. Also it will depend on how the lighting fixtures are arranged. Many times Scotopic light can be a good retrofit but new construction would be the most ideal as then you can situate the lighting fixtures knowing that far less fixtures would be needed.
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