need help workig through some logic 

I am trying to wrap my head around how to do this. I want to have Castle OS alert me if the power in my house goes out. assuming I have a battery backup on my Castle OS computer, Router, Insteon Hub, and Cable modem, I was thinking of the following two methods to accomplish this.

1) use a dimmer module with permalight, on an unprotected circuit. if the power goes out, permalight will attempt to turn it on, I can then have an event triggered by permalight attempting to turn on the module send an email and SMS alerting me of the power outage.

2) use Phil Hawthorne's ip ping condition script to periodically ping a device on my network that we can reasonably assume will always be on, and is on an unprotected circuit. then if the condition script reports that the device is not present, it will report that the power is out.

any thoughts on the best way to accomplish this, and if the above methods will work? I am open to suggestions other than those listed above.

thanks,
Chris S

Any recommendations for which meters?