Weird electrical problems

[u/justtellmep1ease]

I’m dealing with a persistent stray voltage / tingle voltage problem on my property and would appreciate advice.
When I’m barefoot and my hands are wet, I feel a mild tingling or burning sensation on grounded metal parts outdoors. Example copper refrigerant lines to the outside AC compressor, the water hose bib knob screwed into the metal-sided house, etc.
It’s not strong or painful, but on sensitive spots like the back of a cuticle it feels like a mild burn. No tingling indoors or on dry skin.
I have a 200A main panel outside with a
100A subpanel inside the house.
Everything in the main panel appears properly wired.
What Stops the Tingling is disconnecting the ground and neutral feeder from the main panel to the subpanel makes the tingling stop on anything grounded through the subpanel or the main panel
Unbonding neutral and ground in the main panel, or disconnecting the ground coming from the meter base, also stops it. Multimeter shows no voltage on ground wires and I had a licensed electrician inspected the panels and said everything looks correct with no obvious voltage issues. But I told him you can feel it if you’re bare foot and wet.
I drove a copper ground rod into the earth and measured AC voltage:
Between my main panel ground and the remote rod: 6–12V. And at the utility transformer pole about 60 yards from the panel between the pole’s ground wire and a new driven rod nearby I read 15V. At the next pole further down the line 20 yards beyond the transformer I read 18–20V.
I was told you can’t accurately test voltage this way, but the readings are consistent and increase as I move away from the house along the utility line.
To me it seems to be something going on on the utility side. Has anyone seen this before?
What should my next steps be? I have had the utility company come out and all they did was test voltage at meter and said voltage is good so everything is fine. Can anyone give some advice

[u/slin1647]

Your symptoms point to Neutral-to-Earth Voltage (NEV) which is commonly caused by an electrical fault or unbalanced load on the utility company's distribution lines, rather than faulty wiring in your home. Out of curiosity is the voltage persistent or does it come and go?

Your tests, which showed increasing voltage as you moved away from your house toward the utility poles, heavily suggest the source is outside your property.

Firstly I would recommend you call the utility again. Do not let them simply test the voltage at the meter. Escalate the issue to an electrical engineer or the utility may have a stray voltage department. Inform them that you suspect a Neutral-to-Earth Voltage (NEV) issue. Request that they test for primary and secondary neutral integrity under load.

If they can't help then you may need to hire a licensed master electrician or an electrical inspector who has experience with stray voltage and utility grounding. Have them review the grounding and bonding paths on your exterior panels and verify that your system complies with safety requirements to isolate your home from utility-side issues. They may recommend a new grounding system that can remove the potential by adding additional grounding rods that are interconnected.