In this paper, the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network is optimized with two metaheuristic algorithms, namely Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for estimating the heating load (HL) and cooling load (CL) of the energy efficient buildings with the residential use. To achieve this, a dataset composed of eight independent factors namely, relative compactness, surface area, wall area, roof area, overall height, orientation, glazing area, glazing area distribution, along with the two dependent variables of HL and CL is provided. Out of 768 samples, 80:20 ratio is considered to select the training and testing datasets randomly. Through a trial and error process, the optimal parameters of the MLP, ABC-MLP and PSO-MLP networks are determined. Three well-known criteria including coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE) are utilized to measure the accuracy of the used models. The results reveal that applying the ABC and PSO algorithms, helps the MLP to perform more efficiently. In this sense, the increase of R2 from 0.8933 to 0.9349 and 0.9370 for the HL, and from 0.8872 to 0.8969 and 0.8997 for the CL prediction show that the outputs of the ensemble models (i.e., ABC-MLP and PSO-MLP) are more correlated with the actual data. Also, the MAE decreases as 22.32% and 24.28% for the HL, and 10.36% and 12.00% for the CL respectively by applying the ABC and PSO. Besides, the RSME decreases as 22.48% and 23.86% for the HL, and 6.06% and 7.56% for the CL modeling respectively with using the ABC and PSO. It is also deduced that the PSO outperforms the ABC in the performance enhancement of the MLP.