Multiple breakers tripping and not resetting..lights pulsating...help!

2 days ago my wife called me in the house to tell me the lights were flickering. I went inside and watched them get real bright and dim every few minutes when suddenly we lost power to the tv. I went downstairs to the breaker box and found 5 or 6 breakers that had tripped. When I went to reset them 3 of them would not reset so I called my electrician who came by the next day to investigate. He had a couple theories but no real answers, and as there were no evident problems and it's a holiday weekend, he swapped out a less important breaker that was still working with one that had tripped and said he would be back Monday to replace the rest of the breakers that wouldn't reset. A couple hours later I came home and found that 8 or 9 breakers were tripped and 7 of them would not reset. My electrician told me there was no risk of fire which is my main concern until we figure out what the problem is and fix it, so I reset what breakers I could and went about my day. Later that evening we were watching tv and again the lights began to flicker and the tv lost power. Oddly enough the power was restored back to the tv before I decided to back downstairs to the breaker panel, so whatever breaker the tv is on didn't actually trip, it just lost power momentarily. At some point I decided to back down to the breaker panel to take another look and got a mild shock when I went to remove the panel cover. I immediately shut the main breaker off and touched the panel again and it was no longer electrified. At that point I shut all the breakers off and went to bed. This morning I went back downstairs and turned the main breaker on and one at a time turned on what breakers I could and felt the panel and never received another shock. The kicker is that both the mains coming into the house and the breakers and wiring are all new and everything in the breaker panel looks very neat and tidy with no obvious problems. It's the Fourth of July and this is all I can think about and can't get anyone over to look at it. And having a 1 year old I'm concerned about fires. Does anybody have an idea as to what this could be? Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums! Stop what you are doing and call your Power Company emergency number. They must respond and it is at no charge to you. They need to check out your incoming wiring. It is likely you have dropped a neutral somewhere, and if it is on their side, they will fix it. Now, GO. Let us know after they leave.

 

Yes, Please do what Larry says.

And please don't ever test for faults by shocking yourself.