NOT A TEACHER
(1) A moderator and a teacher have both given you excellent answers.
(2) I understand how important this is to you. I know that students in many countries
study very hard in order to pass the examinations. Their future depends on those
examinations (and essays).
(3) Besides what the moderator and teacher told you, I have also found some
information that you may find helpful.
(4) It comes from a grammar book entitled A Grammar of Present-Day English by
Professors Pence and Emery.
(a) You are a learner, and I am a learner. We like rules, don't we!
(i) Well, here is their "rule":
When the times expressed by the participle and by the principal verb are
practically but not actually contemporaneous , the present tense is generally
used instead of the perfect.
I think that it means something like this in regular English: When the two actions
follow each other very closely, use "-ing," not "having + past participle."
(4) As the moderator told us, either of your sentences means about the same. It
is only my guess that the better answer would be: Finding no one at home [8:30},
he left the house in a bad mood [8:31].
(5) Now here is an example from their book that shows when you MUST use the
perfect:
Having worked in every capacity from janitor to vice president, the new president is
the best trained man the company ever had in that office, [P.S. Not important, but I
would write "best-trained."]
As you can see, it would be ridiculous and "crazy" to write: Working in every ....
That would mean that the new president is now working in every capacity from janitor
to vice president.
(6) One more example from their book. Because I am quoting so much from it, I had
better further identify it: It was published by the Macmillian Publishing Company in New York and Collier Macmillian Publishers in London; copyright in 1947 and 1963.
(a) Completing their business, the committee voted to adjourn.
(b) Having completed their business, the committee voted to adjourn.
The authors feel that both are "correct." Just as the moderator told us.
(7) I think (think) that you could use the perfect in something like:
Having found no one at home [8:30], he is now [10:30] in a restaurant eating
all by himself and crying his heart out.
In other words, it seems to be a matter of timing.